canola in alabama 2015

Canola in the U.S. South

Practical Research: Introducing massive acreage of new crops in established growing areas can put both new and established crops at risk

Every so often I hear about how farmers in the southern states of the U.S. will soon be growing millions of acres of canola. Of course, what would be grown would be winter canola, since crucifers such as cabbage, collard and broccoli all can survive the Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee winters. They get […] Read more






Cabbage seedpod weevil.

The march of the cabbage seedpod weevil

Cooler, wetter spring could favour the pests this year

The cool, damp spring the Prairies are experiencing could lead to a bad year for cabbage seedpod weevils, which is bad news for canola growers. “They seem to like it a little bit cooler, rather than very hot, and can suffer with great heat and very dry conditions,” Saskatchewan Agriculture entomologist James Tansey says. “That […] Read more

canola

How broccoli may give canola traits a bump

Traits from related brassica species may improve canola diversity

Glacier FarmMedia – There’s little doubt that canola is a powerhouse crop. Nationwide, it covered nearly 22.1 million acres last year, more than 99 per cent of it on the Prairies. The Canola Council of Canada puts its economic contribution at nearly $30 billion a year. A University of Alberta researcher, backed by the Natural […] Read more


A canola crop in the RM of Fletts Springs, just northwest of the RM of Pleasantdale, in 2019.

Where the canola was: a history of Saskatchewan yields by soil climatic zone

Whether by nature, nurture or both, yields jumped in several zones around the turn of this century

Editor’s Note: Les Henry, the esteemed Prairie soil scientist and our longtime soils columnist, left us on June 14 at age 83. Up until the day before his passing, Les was working on and revising this column for the next (July 11) edition of Grainews. We’ll still have this on paper for you in a […] Read more



According to Hector Carcamo of AAFC, low populations of lygus bugs can actually benefit canola crops.

When a pest isn’t a pest

Finding flea beetles and lygus bugs in canola fields doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a problem. Sometimes lygus bugs can even benefit the crop

Insect pests aren’t always true pests. Hard as it may be for farmers to imagine, sometimes the insects do more good than harm. That was a key message from an April online seminar on insect control in canola organized by the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. The three panelists — Alejandro […] Read more

Cross-section of an infected canola plant root. Verticillium fungus spreads upward through a plant’s vascular tissues and can create this sort of discolouration, which looks somewhat similar to blackleg.

Keep verticillium stripe in focus this year

Practical Research: Don't let the fungi hitchhike between fields on your equipment -- or anyone else's

Where did such a destructive disease come from? Verticillium stripe was first reported in Manitoba in 2014, some 10 years ago. The fungus, Verticillium longisporum, has now been confirmed present in six provinces: British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. In a survey in 2023 across Manitoba, verticillium stripe was found in 38 per […] Read more